Hello all,

We have played through most of the Enemy Within, but I want the Electoral crisis solved to bring the campaign to a close. It feels like a good way to end the campaign, as the crisis played a major part in the early parts of the campaign. I thought the players might want to throw their weight in on one of the sides (Alptraum or Leitdorf), but they decided to enter the race instead.

One of my players is now a rank 5 or 6 Noble(woman) from Averheim, so quite high ranking from a game terms perspective. She has successfully become a good friend with Kaufman and flirted her way into Bearfausts good graces throughout the whole campaign. She has plans to marry Baerfaust go through she will have a powerful husband/ally with command over the Averland armies, plus a powerful friend in Kaufman, who probably sees a lot of profit in her becoming an Elector. As she is also considered a hero of the empire after managing to stop the black cowl, saving the emperor and such it's not far fetched that she could actually win the race for the electoral seat.

However, I don't want to simply hand her the seat. I want some challenges and I want the whole gaming group included. So I'm interested in suggesstions on how to run this in a fun, challenging way. I'd like to have one or two small adventures prepared per player where that players skills are the focus, while furthering the overall goal to win the seat of the Elector Count. So all players feel that they are important, so there's not too much focus on one player (the noble).

The group consists of:

• The noblewoman
• A Priest of Ranald
• An Amethyst Wizard
• A Wood Elf mystic

The Wood Elf has a kind of diplomatic status after the events of The Enemy Within.

All are at about rank 5-6 and quite skilled, the group likes investigations and social encounters primarily but are still good fighters as well.

Also, what problems could I throw at the players? When she starts to increase in popularity the other families won't just sit by and watch.

I assume sabotage, discrediting rumors maybe even assasinations could be part of their plans. Suggestions?

Having studied the illusterous tome of "Heirs of Sigmar" in regards to Averland I shall attempt to give some suggestions for what kind of stuff you could throw at your players. Please not however that I have never read "The Enemy Within" so I make get some details wrong on the state of the province. And these are of course my views on the matter and I'll happily listen to anyone presentes differention views as I'm mostly down with feudal politics and not the Renaissance electorial system in the Empire and I'm not all that versed in high Imperial social conduct to be honest, but I'll give a try.

Rivals

Most importantly are probably that there are two given rivals for the new Elector Countess; the Leitdorfs and the Alptraums, both of whom can be assumed to possess friends, influence and wealth enough to seek the rule over the province although the former may be to divided to mount a serious opposition to the new ruler. Still I can see that these two families, in particular the Alptraums may be the main political opposition to the players. In regards to the Leitdorfs they may also be a problem but I would think that since they are described as being very divided the countess could ally with some to break the power of the family as a whole or put the power of the family in the hands of those who are not interested in the rule of the province or on friendly terms with the players.

There may of course be other opponents but these two are the ones who comes to mind.

Adventure ideas

Seek further division among the Leitdorfs.

Socially disgrace a leading Alptraum in high society circles.

Counter a dark rumor, which may or may not be true, about the countess or her associates.

Dig up dirt on the Alptraums or Leitdorfs, or their servants, to spread or use as blackmail.

Avoid an outright assassination by sharpshooter/bandits/mercenary ogres/a lover/what else they can throw at the countess

Create "evidence" and place them where they can be found to get reasons to arrest and punish leading oppositional nobles

Buy or silence witnesses from earlier acts during "The Enemy Within" campaign.

Support

While the countess has the support of the army that's great but probably not enough as even a thousand halberds will offer no protection against poisoned wine or a secret lover with a smuggled dagger behind in his hand. As such I would think that the players would need to make create alliances with some nobles and possible cults (not the evil like Khorne or Tzeentch but the nice kind like Rhya or Sigmar) and that could lead to different adventures and challenges. For example there might be the need to negotiate favorable trade deals with neighbors in order to gain the support of the merchants, to keep the land clear of Greenskin raids and bandits in order to inspire loyalty from the cattle raising nobility and keeping relations with the Dwarfs good. Depending on how you want to play the Dwarfs these could take great offence that there's an elf in the inner cirlce of the Elector Countess and thus make those negotiations harder, perhaps even driving the Dwarfs to favor another party to rule the province, like the Alptraums. And the same for other factions. Those who are hurt or find the countess less than aligned with their interests have an easy banner to rally around in the form of the Alptraums or Leitdorfs.

Adventure ideas

Hold a ball at court and impress the nobles with social grace and engage in vicious rumor-mongering about the Alptraums, while avoiding being caught in the same trap by the opponents

Give the local leader of the Sigmarite church an audience, listen to his concerns, and then work to gain his support

Negotiate a renewal of the trade deals with the Dwarfs but someone has informed the Dwarfs that the countess holds an Elf as a close friend and the Dwarfs are not amused.

Get hold of favorable trade deal in regards to export of beef and leather, but in return the neighboring Elector Count wants a favor done, which is a fairly unethical nature

Do favors or introduce policies which favors various people that the countess would seek an alliance with

Give public speeches in defense of a tax increase and then get out of the resulting riot alive

Weed out unfavorable supporters like a hidden Chaos cult or criminal elements to ensure that they don't stain the countess' reputation, provided the criminal elements can't bring some good stuff to the table cause.

Finally being relevant in the next election

With this I mean that if the countess seeks to rule she'll have to break some eggs as no one can rule and hold so much responsibility without any stains. But for people to want to tie their futures to the countess and potentially fall with her, they'll need to feel she and her legacy has a future also after her death. I think that someone said that one of the reasons that Julian the Apostate failed was that before him was a line of Christian emperors and if there would be more Christian emperors after him, then anyone sticking out as being tough on Christians would have their lives and careers ruined after Julian died, and so also pagans were reluctant to tie themselves to him. The same I would think is true here. If people assume that the countess and her legacy will just be a flash in the pan then there's no need to become a hardcore supporter for her faction as the Alptraums or Leitdorfs, or another old and rich family will just take over the title and bring pain on anyone who annoyed them. As such ensuring that people see that supporting and throwing in their futures with the countess, she'll have to both build a essential faction which will stick together and also ensure that someone who will keep her friends as their friends will take over after she's gone.

Adventure ideas

Groom an heir to take over after the countess and show people that she and her friends are here to stay in power, thus giving confidence that allying with her is a long-term beneficial move

Deflect a barriage of slander and crime/disgrace baits directed at said heir

Really good stuff. Thanks for the input!

I'll use a lot of that and add my own ideas to draft a document for my players with some ideas that are supplied by advisors (such as Kaufman, Baerfaust and other allies) so the group can choose from bunch of different approaches (or "quests").

Some of my own adventure ideas:

I have some ideas that they could look for the Königsring, which is part of Siggurds regalia and could be a nice symbol, Leopold Leitdorf disappeared with it as I recall.

They could also hunt some orcs, Averlanders hate orcs and as much of the army has been away the province has seen a surge in Orc activity. Defeating a war boss could be a good thing.

Furthermore Grenzstadt has lost it's noble leader, so if they can affect who get's to rule there that could be a boon.

The plan is to make a progress tracker, that will advance for each done quest. When the tracker reaches the last space the election will be held. Depending on how well the group has done in their quests we'll see who gets to be the Elector Count. On the tracker I'll have some spots where bad stuff happen, such as sabotage, assasination attempts, rumors and bribery.

I'm happy I could help.

Stealing it from Gurkhal!

Very cool ideas, Gurkhal. I'm wondering to if you've got any remaining NPC's, major or minor that might make an appearance, even if it's in a behind the scenes way. Possible the further back you can go, the better. The dwarf connection is also interesting. They would be demanding an explanation and would start to pull in national politics as an adventure hook, fail or succeed for a later date.

Thanks guys. I'm happy I could be of help.

A prior thread discussing this which has a link to my Averland Electoral Crisis document.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/98290-resolving-the-averland-electoral-crisis/page-2

If you have access to the Middenheim City of the White Wolf earlier edition supplement (scribd is your friend) it has an example of "points system" for resolving a political question.

A major rival has to emerge at some point, but it's more interesting if there are two.

A rival contender for Captain Baerfaust's heart would also make an interesting feature, particularly if it was a noblewoman from one of the main houses.

Having to contend with an "out-flanking move" to combine Averland and Wissenland with one vote under the Toppenheimer family, in order to keep the total Electoral Votes equal when Nuln is given one of its own separating from Wissenland (the Emmanuele v. Leibwitz plot mentioned in Sigmar's Heirs) is another possibility - it's no good becoming a leading contender for a role that's about to be abolished.

Thanks valvorik, that document is already a major part in my planning.

The Toppenheimer gambit is an interesting angle, and I have let the players know that some such plans are in motion (through Kaufman spies in Nuln/Wissenland).

I have the Middenheim City book, but I cannot find the points system, do you have a page reference for the system?

Sorry, it's Power Behind the Throne adventure that has the point system for swaying events - well swaying the Graf (which you could make influencing a council, a Plenipotentiary etc.)

Thanks, I have that book as well and will check it later for inspiration.

I'm trying to work in some moral choices in the "quests", for example having to choose which band of orcs to deal with; the one that could save the most people (mainly in the brass tier), or the one that is a threat to some noble houses holdings and would make them give their support in the race for the electoral seat.

When it's time for the vote for Elector I'm thinking of having all the votes written down separate papers and let the players count the votes. That could add some excitement, rather than just announcing who the winner is.

For this I have tried to find details about the voting process, but there's little information on who and how it works. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of taking the list of noble houses in your Averland Electoral Crisis document and assigning a number of votes to each noble house (landed nobles having more votes than landless ones). That way, if the players try to asses which houses are most important to influence I have a list for that as well.

Also should the College of Wizards, Church of Sigmar or any important silver tier organisations/persons have any votes. Or would their support rater be of indirect use, as they could affect how some of the noble houses vote?

Giving each major family an "influence factor", starting with the wealth rating of the holding they control (Sigmar's Heir's style), is a good starting point. A few can be modified up/down to reflect other factors. Part of the outcome of adventures can not just be "switching votes" but "increasing or decreasing the influence value of a voter". I was going to do something like this in my own game before it tanked.

I like the choices you suggest. It depends on players and what they find fun but I myself like putting out choices that aren't just about risk/benefit options but about "who you are" - this only really works with players who are into roleplaying their character a bit more.

Good point, lowering the influence of a noble house sounds like a fun idea. I'll have to introduce possibilities for this to my group.

Agreed, last session we started, and stopping orc raids was among the first things on the list. Averland beeing less defended while the army was away, fighting in the north. So the choice of which orc band to deal with went great. The players had a long discussion and swung between wanting saving a lot of pesants, or saving a herd of horses for the Ritterbachs and earning favour with that family. In the end they decided that to help the pesants. So that was good fun.